


The Mountain

by direful



Series: Clan Napellus (74924) Library Archives [1]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Gen, The Cloudscrape Crags are dangerous and should be explored with caution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 02:02:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13893894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/direful/pseuds/direful
Summary: Thanks to the "Jailbreak" official story, I finally had enough inspiration and canonical material to write about two of my dragons exploring the future home of their clan. Meili is #39077470 and Skadi is #8924163, if you're looking for visuals. Completely unbeta'd.





	The Mountain

Skadi clung to the rock face as the biting wind blew past her, threatening to rip her off the mountain completely. The nocturne dug her claws into the thick layer of ice that coated everything in sight, and tried in vain to pull her wings closer to her body. Glancing behind her, she could barely make out the form of Meili, her coatl companion, who was likewise clinging to the mountainside. _Miserable_ , she thought. _We should have asked for a guide at Coldhollow._ But getting a guide hadn’t been part of the assignment, and they had been confident that the two of them could scale the mountain without any help. Skadi reflected bitterly on how they had gotten themselves into their current predicament.

\--

Skadi had been chatting with the clan’s archivist when Tsura approached and beckoned to speak with her. She had followed the seneschal to the edge of the lair, where Tsura stopped and motioned to a pair of packs leaning against the wall. There was quite a bit of hustle and bustle in the area already, as Ferrum, the merchant, was preparing to leave for the nearby longneck village.

“Skadi, you’re our most skilled scout,” Tsura said, “so I need you to go into the mountains. Go with Ferrum on their trading trip to Coldhollow Village and then make your way south. The longnecks there told our diplomats about a cave system in the Crags, I need you to scout it out. Please find and mark a safe path up the mountain to the cave, and explore as much of cave system as you can. Take Meili with you, you’ll need her cartography skills, and she’s been itching to map that corner of our territory for a while.”

Meili was the newly-arrived navigator of Quintinius’ pirate crew, and Skadi had seen her in the archives several times. She’d never spoken to the coatl, but she seemed a reasonable climbing companion. Nearly twice Skadi’s body-length, she was thickly feathered (a product of being born to a clan living on the Floes) and strong, a capable explorer. Skadi smiled at her as the two of them tied on their packs, and the coatl grinned back. Ferrum gave them a nasty glance as they climbed into the back of the merchant’s cart, but as Ferrum was usually less than pleasant, they merely nodded in greeting and made themselves comfortable for the journey ahead. 

The journey across the clan’s territory had been uneventful but beautiful, the Snowsquall Tundra teeming with life in the short southern summer. The two explorers had built a friendship spotting various forms of wildlife and talking about the places they had been, and soon enough they had arrived at Coldhollow Village, the nearest longneck settlement. Ferrum shooed them off the cart as soon as they stopped, tossing their packs after them as they began to unload their wares. Skadi double-checked that everything in her pack was ready for the ordeal ahead before shouldering it and turning to Meili, who was staring upwards.

“The Crags are huge…” the coatl said quietly. “I tried to summit one of the mountains once. When I was much younger, and exploring the Icefield on my own. I didn’t make it very far before turning back, and I’m glad I did. I wasn’t ready.”

Skadi listened quietly, having never attempted to venture into the most dangerous region of their land herself. Meili twisted her snakelike neck to look down at the much smaller nocturne, excitement clearly written across her face. “I’m ready now, though. Shall we find a path up the mountains?”

They had only asked for directions once, to confirm which peak held their goal. Confident in their skills, the two of them had set off without hesitation, making their way through the foothills on the other side of the village. They had made good time, too, their little expedition reaching the base of their mountain on the first evening. Everything had gone smoothly for much of the second day, they had flown a good distance until Meili judged it unsafe to continue in the air. “Fly too high in the Crags, and you risk getting caught in a sudden squall and being blown off to who knows where. Or just freezing right out of the sky,” she had added solemnly. “It’s too dangerous to fly any higher, we’d better start climbing.”

\--

And climb they had, until a blast of freezing wind, channeled between the surrounding peaks, had brought a sudden snowstorm. They tried to continue, but the risk of veering hopelessly off course had grown too great. So there they were, two dragons clinging to the mountainside, using all their energy and skill to avoid being blown away. Skadi gritted her teeth against the wind, and with great effort brought herself another step up the rock face. The ice cracked beneath her claws and pitons. Squinting against the squall, she looked upwards, judging how far off course they had gotten. Another gust of wind blew by, and another, but the power of the gusts was beginning to lessen, and through the snow Skadi was confident she could make out the shape of the mouth of a cave.

Another glance over her shoulder to make sure Meili was still behind her, and the nocturne put her head down and with painstaking slowness began to climb the rest of the way. What seemed like hours later, with ice coating every inch of her, the nocturne hauled herself onto the ledge, finally out of the biting wind. She barely stopped for breath before digging a pick solidly into the ice at the mouth of the cave and attaching a weighted rope to it.

“Grab the rope, I’ll pull you up!” she shouted, letting the wind carry her voice back to Meili. She saw the coatl look upwards through the snow before freeing a claw and giving her the go-ahead sign. Skadi let the rope go, and it arced perfectly through the air... and missed Meili completely. She tried again. A short break in the roaring winds and- yes! Meili tugged on the rope to test it before Skadi began to pull it, and soon enough the coatl was resting alongside her in the mouth of the cave.

Skadi shrugged her pack off and dug around inside the frozen leather satchel until she found what she was looking for, a small sealed box. Firestarters. As she focused all her attention on getting a small fire going, she heard Meili take off her own pack and lean it against the wall of the cave before speaking.

“When this storm dies down, we can find a safe path back to the foothills. We should stay here until it does… At least we found the caves Tsura told us to investigate.”

Skadi glanced at Meili to ensure that she was alright, but once she saw her companion she had to resist the urge to laugh. She failed, chuckling at her sodden friend.

“What’s so funny?” Meili grumbled, flicking a half-melted chunk of ice off one of her wing feathers. The short feathers covering her body had begun to clump together as the ice melted in the heat of the fire, and Skadi was reminded of the time one of the sparrowmice her clanmates kept as a familiar had fallen into one of the hot springs. The poor thing had looked so wretched...

“I’m - I’m _so sorry_ , Meili, but - you look like a sad bird. You’re all wet!” The melt was running right off Skadi’s smooth scales as she quaked with laughter, forming a puddle around her. Meili, on the other hand, was wet through, and thoroughly miserable.

“We don’t all have scales, Skadi.” Meili, irritated, flicked her wing, sending droplets of water splattering against the ground. She flicked her wing again, a devious look slowly growing on her face as she stood and casually unfurled her wings. Skadi never saw it coming - Meili shook her long body, sending water flying in all directions and soaking the nocturne once more. She didn’t stop shaking until she was sure more water was on Skadi than was still in her feathers - and she was right. Skadi was sitting right by the gently crackling fire, stunned and absolutely drenched.

Meili laughed.


End file.
